Month: January 2011

Ed Young Art isn’t the type of gallery to keep it normal. Between exquisite calligraphic styles to simple airbrush designs. Ed Young opened his gallery with a sense of purpose and mission to do something a little eccentric yet still considered mainstream enough to sell of in. The gallery sells both online and in the flesh, yet Ed Young knows that in order to make it his gallery needs a strong virtual presence.

Can it be? Can South America be moving to up-stage its northern neighbors in USA? It sure seems that way. Gonzalo Sosa from Investments Argentina reports about Argentina’s Industrial growth expanded through the end of 2010. This expansion should continue through 2011. Two recently released industrial reports, one from Orlando Ferreres and the other from the Industrial Union of Argentina show between a 13.4% and 13.9% for Argentina’s Industry. If you ask my opinion, its time to look South for some successful investments

Surgeons have successfully transplanted a larynx for the second time in history, giving a fifty-two year old Californian back her voice. Brenda Jenson was operated on for eighteen hours at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, and was able to form her first words after nearly two weeks. She spent four weeks in the hospital following the surgery, and while her speech was very weak at first, it improved rapidly. After weeks of rehabilitation, Jenson met the whole surgical team for the first time.

Jensen expressed her gratitude and said “This operation has restored my life. I feel so blessed to have been given this opportunity. It is a miracle, I’m talking, talking, talking which just amazes my friends and family. Every day is a new beginning for me. I’m working so hard to use my vocal cords and train my muscles to swallow… I’ll probably never sing in a choir or anything, but it’s exciting to talk normally and I can’t wait to eat and drink and swim again.”

Generally, the risks of rejection and nerve damage to the larynx prevent doctors from attempting this transplant. In fact, the only other such transplant recorded took place in 1998. Jensen was an unusually fitting candidate for the surgery, though, as she had recently undergone both kidney and pancreas transplants, and was already used to the immunosuppressive medications required following a transplant.

Professor Martin Birchall, who was part of the surgical team, said “The larynx is one of the most sophisticated neuromuscular organs in the body. We’ve learned that we can repair nerves to make even very complex organs function again. It’ll open the door to better facial transplants and will be extremely important as tissue engineering develops.”

Numerous researchers have reached the same conclusion: O blood type might protect the body from heart attacks once arteries are clogged.

“Certain genes predispose to heart artery plaque build-up, whereas different genes lead to heart attacks when you already have plaque build-up,” said Dr. Muredach P. Reilly, study author and associate professor of medicine at the Cardiovascular Institute of the University of Pennsylvania.

The study results deepen our understanding of the relationship between genetics and cardiovascular health, explains Reilly. “Not all genes for heart disease are equal and therefore have to be used differently in new treatments for heart disease and when assessing risk of heart disease,” he said.
During their research, Reilly’s team compared 13,000 people with coronary artery disease with 7,400 healthy people. They also compared within the 13,000 diseased; 5,800 diseased who had had a heart attack with over 3,600 diseased who had not.

A study whose results were released last Friday shows that a certain class of drugs known as “atypical antipsychotics” are being over prescribed with no increased positive outcomes and with perhaps bad side effects.

These new antipsychotic medications were first developed to treat schizophrenia, and were approved by the FDA only for this function. Over time however the drugs came to be used for other conditions, such as bipolar disorder, depression, and sometimes even for autism.

A consultant for a company that does data collection on prescription drugs, IMS Health wrote the study which appeared in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety. The consultant, Dr. Caleb Alexander of the University of Chicago stated that, “What we see is wide adoption for the use of these medications far beyond the evidence base to support it. We’re talking millions of prescriptions a year for antipsychotics in settings where there is uncertain evidence to support them.”